Despite losing to the Stormers, the Cell C Sharks still find ourselves in a strong position on the overall Vodacom Super Rugby log table and continue to lead the South African Conference with 11 points.
Cell C Sharks head coach Robert du Preez expressed his disappointment and frustration at his team’s
16-11 loss, outlining where things didn’t quite go our way. It was always going to be a hugely physical clash and both teams would be looking to apply as much pressure to the opposition in anticipation of a close game.
“It’s disappointing,” said du Preez after the match.
“We showed glimpses of what we can achieve when we had the ball, we just couldn’t retain that possession and build the phases. We have a couple of things to work on.”
On a day when the DHL Stormers were able to capitalise on numerous penalties, the coach felt this was an area that definitely placed the Cell C Sharks under pressure.
“I think our discipline was not good enough, we couldn’t get any momentum going in the first half, we couldn’t exit properly, and that means you’re always going to be under the pump.”
He also paid a note of praise to the opposition for coming out on top of a keenly-contested derby game.
“The Stormers are a quality side, they have quality individuals. We never expected an easy game, we certainly didn’t get one.”
The Cell C Sharks travel to Pretoria this weekend to take on the Vodacom Bulls who bounced back from a loss to the Jaguares in week two to beat the Lions 30-12 in a second emphatic performance against South African opposition, after beating the Stormers 40-3 in their opening match.
The coach hinted that there could be changes this weekend to the team to play the Bulls.
“We always said that we would be making changes going forward as part of our rotation policy and we will,” he explained.
It will be a real test of the Cell C Sharks’ resolve as we look to bounce back from defeat and there is no doubt that a second consecutive derby match for the Cell C Sharks will be just as testing and dramatic as this past weekend.
The match at Loftus kicks off at 5.15pm.
The post Disappointment appeared first on Sharks Rugby.
The Cell C Sharks lost our first Vodacom super Rugby match of the season after going down 16-11 to the Stormers at Jonsson KINGS PARK on Saturday evening.
This was the first derby match for the Cell C Sharks while the Stormers have yet to meet opposition that isn’t from South Africa and somehow the visitors conjured a win in a real arm-wrestle of a match where pressure counted and mistakes were punished.
It was always going to be hotly contested and three yellow cards and just two tries in total tells a story of a match approaching the tension and demands of a test match.
The Stormers scored early on, funny enough only their second try of the season, as the Cell C Sharks were under pressure to move the ball and an intercept led to the visitors taking the early lead after having spent most of the opening minutes on defence.
It took well over 10 minutes before the first scrum of the game was awarded, but the Stormers front row went down and they lost their own scrum put-in when referee Jaco Peyper awarded us the penalty which Robert du Preez had no trouble slotting over.
But following repeated infringements, the Cell C Sharks found ourselves on a team warning and defending our line, Lukhanyo Am was deemed to be off-sides and given his marching orders at the conclusion of the first quarter of the game.
After failing with two penalty shots at goal, SP Marais finally converted to restore his team’s seven point lead, while Aphelele Fassi had to leave the field injured, replaced by Rhyno Smith, himself a late replacement for Curwin Bosch who didn’t come through the warm-up.
When Lukhanyo Am did return, just three points had been conceded but we would face further disadvantage when Akker van der Merwe was carded just before half-time and SP Marais took the Stormers lead to 10.
It had not been a productive half – a rather frustrating one in fact – that allowed the Stormers to take a 13-3 lead into the break.
Despite being a man down, it was the Cell C Sharks who put together a wonderfully attacking passage of play, the passes stuck and the breakdowns went to plan as we took possession from our 22 at the kick-off and worked our way patiently downfield before Am was sent the perfect pass to crash over.
A third yellow card was issued, this time for the Stormers after Makazole Mapimpi was tackled around the neck enroute to the tryline. Akker van der Merwe returned to the field at the same time and we made the advantage count with a penalty to reduce the Stormers lead to just two points with half an hour of the game remaining.
It took 15 minutes of tooing and froing on attack and defence as neither side was able to make possession count, before the Stormers were awarded a penalty right in front and made no mistake with the conversion for a five point lead.
It was the last points in a low-scoring match that was all about huge intensity and whoever could forced the advantage in a game of very few chances.
Cell C Sharks captain admitted afterwards that discipline had cost his team, saying, “We’re very disappointed, we needed to get a win and our discipline and game management was disappointing; you can’t win a game with two yellow cards and the number of penalties we conceded.
“The Stormers played well, all credit to them, but we did frustrate ourselves. A lot of improvement is needed.”
The post Stormers Come Out on Top appeared first on Sharks Rugby.
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